The health targets results for the first quarter of 2014/15 have been released by the Ministry of Health.

Taranaki DHB Planning, Funding, and Population Health General Manager, Becky Jenkins said, “A focus on the six key areas is important to continue improve health, reduce inequalities and improve the quality of health services for local people.”

This quarter’s results show people in Taranaki have improved access to elective surgery and that there is better help for smokers to quit in the community.

“While there is always room for improvement, these results reflect the hard work of staff in the Taranaki DHB and those in the health sector to improve the health of the people of Taranaki,” said Ms Jenkins.

The health target results for Taranaki DHB are:

1) Shorter stays in Emergency Departments: Target 95%, Achieved 93%
93% of patients seen in Taranaki Emergency Departments were admitted, discharged, or transferred from the department within six hours.

Taranaki is above the national average for this target. Nationally, the shorter stays in Emergency Departments target decreased by 1.2 percent to 92.7 percent. This is a strong result given the traditional increase in acute (urgent) presentations during the winter months, and is the highest Quarter One result since the target began.

This, in part, can be attributed to Taranaki DHB and Midland Health Network, the network of 99% of General Practitioners (GP's) in Taranaki, working closely together to ensure patients receive the right care, at the right place. That is, the Emergency Department for all emergencies, and their GP for other non-urgent medical needs.

2) Improved Access to Elective Surgery: Target 100%, Achieved 117%
Taranaki DHB has again achieved over the target of 100% (for the population) for the Improved Access to Elective Surgery target. Taranaki DHB has delivered this across a wide range of surgical specialities.

Assisting in this result has been an ongoing focus on ensuring patients are well prepared for surgery, and a continued reduction in day-of surgery-cancellations. Taranaki DHB has also recently commenced a project to increase the surgical day procedure rate. This project is supported by the Ministry of Health.

Significant benefits also continue to be realised from the implementation of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programmes.

Nationally, this target is an increase in the volume of elective surgery by at least 4000 discharges per year. Nationally, DHBs planned to deliver 40,223 discharges for the year to date, and have delivered 2,120 more.

3) Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment: Target 100%, Achieved 100%
This quarter every patient ready for cancer treatment continued to received it within the target of four weeks.

Taranaki DHB plans to continue this strong performance, and its collaborative relationship with the MidCentral DHB, to maintain this achievement.

Taranaki DHB has worked closely with primary care organisations, hospital services, outreach immunisation services, the National Immunisation Register and Well Child Providers on strategies to help improve our immunisation uptake, including early enrolment of newborns with a general practice (GP).

This 95% target is an increase from the 90% target in previous quarters. A high level of immunisation coverage (around 95%) is required to prevent community spread of two common infectious diseases - measles and whooping cough.

Taranaki DHB and the wider sector are working to together to increase activity through to December 2014, with the aim of reaching the 95% target.

5) Better Help for Smokers to Quit (Hospital Target): Target 95%, Achieved 95%
Taranaki DHB continues to work hard to ensure patients and visitors to its hospitals are given advice about quitting smoking.

By supporting smokers to quit, the aim is to improve the health of those around them by reducing exposure to second hand smoke.

Better Help for Smokers to Quit (Primary Care Target): Target 90%, Achieved 85%
There has been some progress on the Better Help for Smokers to Quit Primary Care Target, with a 0.4% increase on last quarter.

Between July and September, 10,795 patients in Taranaki were offered brief advice and/or support to quit smoking in primary care.

Taranaki DHB is committed to working collaboratively, and developing further linkages with stop-smoking services and stakeholders, to contribute towards the Government Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal.

6) More Heart and Diabetes Checks: Target 90%, Achieved 88%
This quarter, 88% of the eligible population had heart and diabetes checks.

Diabetes and cardiovascular disease remains one of the main causes of ill health in Taranaki and Taranaki DHB continues to work hard to provide the best outcomes for these people.

The implementation of a multidisciplinary team to support the care provided by GP practices, and the ongoing education of GP’s and practice nurses in the care and management of diabetic patients in the community, are just two examples.